The weather forecasters seem to get it right quite often these days; it was a dismal day yesterday, no chance to do anything on the allotment. In order to get a bit of exercise and some fresh air I walked to town, then the rain got really heavy and I returned home looking like a bedraggled cat.

Never mind that, the afternoon was spent in the greenhouse, further sorting out trays and sewing some chilli peppers in a pot to keep on the kitchen windowsill.

Today was a different story – just as forecast, blue sky, some chill in the air but very nice.

There were a few bits of land that needed turning over, nothing heavy, just getting it ready and perhaps pulling some weeds out. My autumn digging must have been good, I didn’t find many weeds, the soil is crumbly, just ready and waiting . Delighted to see loads of worms, I think they know that my friendly robin is after them and they go down like a flash.

All in all I turned the soil over in my latest cabbage cage

and on the small patch where I’m planning to have parsnips this year.

There is one more little piece of ground left where I had parsnips this year but that’s a bit too wet, I’ll leave it till the weekend, perhaps the weather will be kind and it’ll dry out.

I also have a number of cold frames, I tried last year to make a hotbed in one of my raised beds using two of them. It wasn’t a huge success, I had some earlier lettuce and radishes but nothing special. I placed them all in a line behind my original net tunnel, filled them with horse manure and they’re ready for action again.

Just as well I pruned the Asian pear, the buds are ready to open. Hope we’re not going to have too much late frost, I’ve got high hopes for a good harvest. The tree might want to have a rest after a bumper crop last year, we’ll see.